A Thousand Words
by Perfections-Cat
Summary: If pictures were priceless, then why waste them on anything and everything? Team 7 centric.


**Author's Note**: I happened to stumble across this cute little fanart and immediately wanted to write something for it. So, after getting permission from the artist, I set about writing this. You can find the link to the image in my profile. Enjoy!

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He liked pictures. Ever since he had stumbled across the camera in his room one day, in a box unlabeled but clearly meant for him (otherwise why was it in his little place called home), he had decided that he liked them. Pictures were memories set in stone. They captured the things you wanted to remember forever, and when you didn't. . .well, you could always burn them, right? 

The problem was he didn't have many of them.

Because if pictures were priceless, then why waste them on anything and everything? Besides, it's not like film was particularly cheap, and Naruto had already decided way back when he had first discovered his camera that it was to be used for the things that he would always want to keep. The things he didn't really have right now (which was why he never really thought about why he had no pictures, only about the things he would one day take, because surely, _surely_, that day would come).

Actually, the only reason he was even thinking about this at all right now was because he had stumbled across that boy again. The only other one this village ever whispered about now. The one who was cursed, but not hated. Naruto had automatically liked him too, ever since he had first seen the dark-haired boy sitting at the edge of the lake.

They could be friends. Easily.

Only, Uchiha Sasuke wasn't all that inclined to talk. At least, not anymore (or so people said). Naruto couldn't blame him though. There were days he didn't want to talk either. Not when he could feel the eyes on him, could hear the quiet tread of words following in his wake.

It would have been easy to take a picture of him now. He was just sitting there, alone on that bench like none of the world around him existed. Sometimes, Naruto wondered that as well, though his thoughts all too often faded into whether or not he existed. Maybe it was easier for Sasuke to pretend the world around him didn't really exist anymore. Maybe that's why he didn't jump when the fireworks went off, causing every other child to shriek and start and clutch the nearest adult's leg.

He didn't do any of that either though.

But taking a picture like that seemed wrong. Like he would be stealing something impossibly important.

At that moment, a young girl slid up to other boy. Vivid pink hair and a shy smile that suddenly made Naruto forget everything that had been cluttering his head. Would anyone ever smile like that for him?

Then again, it seemed like lots of girls had been looking at Sasuke that way. Maybe they knew one another. It seemed a decent assumption, only Sasuke was looking thoroughly confused and. . .almost annoyed. Which was really rather wrong seeing as the girl only wanted to keep him company. Sasuke had looked lonely, now that he thought about it. And besides, who was Sasuke to turn away a potential friend?

No one ever bothered with him like that. It was like turning away free ramen. You simply didn't do it. Never. _Ever_.

It was a perfect opportunity though, and he planned on utilizing it completely. He knew he wasn't the smartest kid around (or so it was said), but he took chances. No one could ever fault him for that. Little black camera in hand, Naruto made his move and slipped out from behind the tree that had been serving as his night guardian for the time being. And he smiled. Big and bright and unmistakably friendly.

"I could take a picture. . ."

Sasuke was the first to notice him, eyes dark and guarded as he walked up. Naruto knew that look, or rather _felt_ it. Understood it. His smile softened.

"Sasuke-kun, you should! It is a festival after all!" the girl beside him encouraged, leaning in closer with every word.

For a moment, Naruto was certain he didn't exist though a few seconds later, green eyes glanced in his direction. Noticed. He had finally been noticed, and without even thinking twice about it, he pulled himself up onto the bench and held out the camera before the other boy.

Sasuke blinked down at the small gadget, surprise scrawled all over his face. But attention like this was. . . strange now. "Why?"

"I don't know," Naruto replied with a laugh. "Sometimes memories are the only things you've got."


End file.
